Pope Francis will visit the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on 15 December, just days after skipping the reopening of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral which was ravaged by a fire in 2019, the Vatican said Saturday.

French President Emmanuel Macron had invited the 87-year-old pontiff to attend the Notre Dame reopening ceremony in Paris on 7 December.

But Francis declined and instead will head to Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, for a conference on the Catholic faith in the Mediterranean, the Vatican said.

"The star of the Notre Dame reopening ceremony is Notre Dame itself," the head of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) Eric de Moulins-Beaufort said.

The pope had not wanted his presence to be a distraction from the essential point of the occasion, he added.

Instead the pope will travel to Corsica, the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean.

It will be the first ever papal visit to the island, where 90 percent of its 350,000 population is Catholic, according to the local Church, and religious traditions such as processions remain deeply rooted. 

He will deliver two addresses and preside over a mass in the afternoon before meeting Macron, the Vatican said. The pontiff will arrive in Ajaccio at 9:00 AM (0800 GMT) and leave shortly after 6:00 PM.

Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on 17 December, has been to France twice since becoming head of the worldwide Catholic Church in 2013.

He visited Strasbourg in 2014, where he addressed the European Parliament, and last year went to Marseille for a meeting of Mediterranean area bishops, where he met Macron.

He has yet to make a state visit to France, one of Europe's main majority-Catholic countries. He is also yet to make state visits to Spain, the United Kingdom or Germany.

The Argentine pontiff prefers visiting smaller or less established Catholic communities, from Malta to Mongolia.

'A moment of hope'

The Corsica visit was championed by the popular media-friendly bishop of Ajaccio, Francois-Xavier Bustillo, who was created a cardinal by Pope Francis in September 2023.

"It will not be a state visit, but a pastoral visit. It will be a beautiful moment, a moment of hope and joy," he told AFP.

Several bishops have urged people not to jump to the wrong conclusion about the pope's absence from the Notre Dame ceremony, which will be attended by Macron and several other heads of state.

"It's not a snub aimed at France," said one. "It's not a sign of lack of faith in the president," added another.

In addition, the head of the Catholic Church is scheduled to be at the Vatican on 7-8 December for a service at which he will create 21 new cardinals.

Rescheduling appointments over coming months would appear to be tricky, given the multitude of events due to take place in Rome in 2025, a Catholic jubilee year. 

Bustillo is one of the active cardinals Francis has appointed in the Mediterranean region, with the pope keen they "work together to meet the specific challenges of the area", a bishop told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Those issues include migration, global warming and interreligious dialogue.

Corsica will be the 47th overseas visit for Francis and his third this year, after a long tour of the Asia Pacific in early September and a trip to Belgium and Luxembourg later that month.

by Clément Melki